Katja Abel (born April 8, 1983) is a German artistic gymnast. She competed at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

. Abel helped the German team finish in 12th place. Her best individual result was 32nd place on

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

. Her most notable achievement is a bronze medal on vault at the

2006 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 26th European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held from 27 April to 30 April 2006 in Volos, Greece. Led by new senior Vanessa Ferrari, Italy became the first team besides Romania, Russia, and the Soviet Union to win the seni ...

Biography

Abel started training in gymnastics with her mother

Irene Abel Irene Abel (born 12 February 1953) is a retired German artistic gymnast. She competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), ...

, an Olympic medalist in 1972. Her career was marred with injuries that stopped her from competing in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. First she had back problems throughout 2000. Later, on 6 February 2004 she fractured bones in both forearms after falling from uneven bars. She had a long recovery, and in 2005 competed only on balance beam, with a minimum load on her arms. In 2006, she won a European bronze medal on vault, but later during the year she suffered ligament injuries in both feet and missed the world championships. Those injuries required two surgeries in 2008 and 2009 and resulted in her skipping the vault at the 2008 Olympics. In early 2007 she moved from her native Berlin to Stuttgart, seeking a team environment. In Stuttgart she trained with

Marie-Sophie Hindermann Marie-Sophie Hindermann (born 26 May 1991) is a German former artistic gymnast. Career Hindermann won four medals at the 2006 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in the junior category: a silver on vault and bronzes in team, all-a ...

and

Kim Bui Kim Bui (born 20 January 1989) is a retired German artistic gymnast. She represented Germany at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Olympic Games. She is the 2009 and 2014 German National Champion and the 2011 European bronze medalist on the uneven bar ...

under the guidance of Tamara Khokhlova and Elena Dolgopolova. She retired from competitions after the 2008 Olympics. After returning to Berlin, she moved to the Technical University of Ilmenau to study sports and biology.

References

External links

Katja Abel
gymbox.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Abel, Katja 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from East Berlin German female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Germany Gymnasts from Berlin 21st-century German sportswomen